George Lucas has dropped a bombshell on Star Wars fans by revealing that Harrison Ford wanted his character, Han Solo, to be killed off during The Empire Strikes Back.

The 70-year-old – who created the Star Wars franchise – admitted the actor kept asking for his character to die during the fifth instalment after he was frozen and sealed in carbonite and delivered to Jabba the Hutt.

‘I said, “Harrison, I can’t kill you. I need you at the end of the next movie. There’s this love thing going on. But I’ll do the next best thing. I’ll put you in a slab of concrete and ship you off to Mars”, he told Empire.

We bet he’s glad that he wasn’t now, as although Lucas has since sold the franchise to Disney, Ford, along with other members of the original Star Wars cast such as Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, are due to appear in the upcoming Star Wars Episode 7.

Original stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill as they were (Picture: AP Photo/20th Century-Fox Film Corporation)